Boonlua Chatree
Child-welfare and human-trafficking police came to the
rescue of a Cambodian woman and her three children who all suffered physical
and sexual abuse from her husband.
The 14-year-old girl shows
rescuers some of the scars from the abuse her stepfather inflicted upon her.
After appealing for aid from the Krajok Ngao Foundation,
32-year-old “Hen” and her children ages 14, 10 and 15 months were taken into
custody by Child Welfare and Protection Center officials and officers from
the Chonburi Provincial Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division.
Hen told authorities her family had been forced by her
40-year-old husband “Jan” to come to Pattaya to work as beggars, beating her
and his three stepchildren severely if they failed to collect enough money.
Hen’s 14-year-old daughter was covered in bruises and her 10-year-old boy
had a split lip and cut nose. The infant showed obvious signs of
malnutrition.
Most recently, Hen said, her husband demanded that she
sell the 14-year-old girl - who she claimed her husband frequently sexually
molested - to a foreigner for sex for 80,000 baht. Before she could deliver
the girl to the foreign man, however, her husband left for a return visit to
Cambodia, giving her an opportunity to seek help.
Police officials arrested Hen on immigration charges
relating to her illegal entry into the country and placed her children in
state custody while they arrange shelter. Meanwhile, Anti-Human Trafficking
Division officers launched an investigation to try and locate Jan in
Cambodia.
